February Madness

It's been since Valentine's Day that I have blogged! Don't get me wrong, I have TRIED. But blogger keeps blocking my access and freezing up during my posts, then deleting them!! Grrrrrr. So, what have I been up too aside from cursing this computer? Millions of things, life has been a whirlwind! But here is the lowdown, because it is so important, of course.

I have been so dang busy, that I bought Valentines from the store (instead of hand making them) and my little guy and I worked on them together. Funny thing is, when I asked my boys what they wanted me to get, they told me I knew best. *yesss!* Wonder how long that will last? So, Star Wars for the boys and Cinderella for the girls it was.

Note, all of the laundry piles, and mega kitchen clean up going on back there. Neglecting duties due to being crazy busy. At one point, we even slept on the couches because of the piles of nearly folded laundry on the bed.

Been busy mugging on this little bit for a while. She is *this close* to walking, just turned 10 months. She absolutely loves hanging upside down, growing out of her clothes and eating. Her one, bottom tooth, blonde fauxhawk and rosy cheeks are adorable.

Been busy doing face painting and working (and playing) at the salon and other events. It's usually the prepwork (like that gingerbread house there) that destroys the house and my sleep cycle!

 

We finally pulled out this alien head kit. The boys had fun making it and painting it. The hubs and I painted the details in at the end. 

 Caleb being a most excellent model.

I have been failing at the homework department, so Isaac had to help me remember to sign it :) So... what all have you been up to?

 

Homefront: A Balloony Birthday

I wanted Caleb to have a little surprise for his 5th birthday when he came home from school, so I made a balloon doorway for him. There were balloons laying around his room so he could play with them, before his brother came home from school. He really had such a blast!

 

 

He is so excited to be a 5 year old big boy!

I have my mom's cake decorating box from when we were kids, so we have a lot of vintage pieces there. These dinosaurs once graced a cake of my brother's when he was a wee kiddo.

Caleb has been asking for a monster truck for years now, and he has gotten lots of cheaper

 remote control cars, but this was the real deal that he tested out when we went to Bass Pro Shops.

 

And of course, no party is complete without balloon popping belly fights! And no pants.

 

Homefront: Monster Birthday Party and Tie Dye Cake Tutorial

This monster party was mostly for me. My boys would probably choose an Angry Birds/Avengers/Minecraft party, but I still have motherly influence while they are young, so I can only do these cute themes for so long.

 

The tie day cake was a hit and super easy to do. Make your cake batter as directed. Separate it into bowls and color each one. Gel food coloring is brighter than the liquid drops. The more dye you use, the brighter the colors. Drop the colored batter in your pans, then take a toothpick to marble them around.

Once baked, the colors lose a bit of their vibrancy, but once you cut into the cake, the colors really pop. Slice off the round top of the bottom tier and place on cake stand. Frost the middle layer, than add the next cake on top. Use foil strips under the cake sides (as I show here) so the frosting is easy to clean off the stand.

For the monster, the edible method is to skewer two large marshmallows with a toothpick (as in this cupcake I learned to make a while back). But I was out of marshmallows, so I used a cake pick and wrapped it in foil, than just gooped frosting on it. The pipe cleaner antenna is best to wrap around a toothpick, than wrap the foil around it before frosting. I forgot about this step and added it after the frosting. So, my monster looked more like a melted alien after messing with it. For the cool fur texture on the cupcake, I used the star/grass piping tip, and a denser icing. The neat eyeballs are little monster eye candies sold in the cake decorating aisle.

These little pipe cleaner kits and monster masks were about $1 from Michael's. I let the boys glue them together with regular school glue, than I hit it with my glue gun for staying power, since we all know how they would fall apart in seconds otherwise. The boys had lots of fun making these. This was his first birthday he got to invite a non-family member. We made english muffin pizzas for dinner, though Isaac insisted on chicken noodle soup with stars. (He even asked me if he could sleep with the can.)

 Turning 7 and blowing out trick candles is lots of fun!

My 5 year old recently had a birthday in which I made a fun, sprinkle filled cake with vintage dinosaurs and we hung up tons of balloons in his doorway he could run through. Sadly, those photos got lost :( Sorry sweetie, if I ever find them hidden in a folder somewhere I will post them! When he blew out the candles, his wish was for "Jesus to come down so we could all see him and know he was there."